My Son Had Perianal Abscess Drained Vis Surgery 4 Months

Posted on Thu, 28 Feb 2019

Question: My son had perianal abscess drained vis surgery 4 months ago. He was fine after that for over three months and there was another swelling around the same area. That was drained as well via surgery. Now that wound stays open and there is discharge once a week or so. Doctors suspect it's a fistula. We are in the middle of doing blood work, MRI and a colonoscopy to address why the discharge occurs. Everything seems to take time with a lot of tests. In the meantime discharge occurs once or twice a week. I am not able to get a straight forward answer as to what we then do the with fistula or how it can be corrected? Or even leaving it in that manner for a month is okay or not okay while we try to identify the problem? Please help!

Answered by Dr. Sumanth Amperayani (14 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
A fistula needs to be surgically corrected

Detailed Answer:
Hello...thank you for consulting here.
A fistula needs to be surgically corrected.

Occasional discharge need not be worried about unless there is fever and swelling in the area which signifies bacterial infection.

By what you say I feel that the treatment plan is going according to protocol and with MRI the surgeon will know the extent of fistula internally and they will be able to completely excise it and close the fistula and wound.

Best regards - Dr Sumanth Amperayani

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad

Follow up: Dr. Sumanth Amperayani (1 hour later)

While we await for tests and results, should we be concerned about the length of time fistula has stayed open in this manner? Our concern is the longer we wait, the more established this abnormal tract will become. Is our concern valid? It's been roughly 5 weeks since the surgery.

Answered by Dr. Sumanth Amperayani (16 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Suggestions on fistula

Detailed Answer:
Hi... sorry for the late reply.
Usually fistulas are long standing and it is the natural history of the disease of this particular condition.
Please do not get worried that if you leave the issue it is good to go more deeper, it is not so.
Fistula does not spread internally that fast it is a very very slow growing tract.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Kampana